A few days ago, the jeweler Tiffany & Co announced the use of Cryptopunks for its collection of 250 NFTiffs. With a sell out in 20 minutes for 12.5 million euros (50ETH each), it is a performance when we know the current market situation.
Tiffany & Co’s NFTiffs collection rides the Cryptopunks wave
A few reminders are needed to fully understand the connection between Cryptopunks, Tiffany & Co, and NFTiffs.
As a reminder, Cryptopunks are a collection of 10,000 NFTs designed in 2017 by the company Larva Labs (Matt Hall and John Watkinson in particular).
At their launch in 2017, they cost between $1 and $34. Now it takes tens of thousands of dollars to buy one.
They each have specific traits: the rarer they are, the more expensive they are. Several celebrities like Eminem and Snoop Dogg own Cryptopunks.
In March, Yuga Labs (parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club), acquired all intellectual property (IP) of Cryptopunks. It then announced the fact that it would give commercial rights to the owners of CryptoPunks.
This opened the way for commercial projects around CryptoPunks.
As early as April 2021, Alexandre Arnault (vice-president of the jewelry company and son of Bernard Arnault) tweeted about his own pendant featuring his Cryptopunks n° 3167.
A beautiful pendant in pink gold set with sapphires and rubies from Mozambique.
Tiffany & Co has now stepped into the breach, as we mentioned in a previous article. The famous company was already interested in the world of blockchain and NFT. No wonder, as the NFT market has exploded during 2021 as shown in the graph below.
NFTiffs, a sell-out in 20 minutes despite a complicated context
Despite the complicated context of the NFT market in recent months, the collection of 250 pieces was sold out in only 20 minutes. Currently, this is rare enough to be noted. These NFT were sold for 50.000 dollars each. This makes a total of 12.5 million US dollars. To get his pendant, NFTiff holders must claim it before August 12.
NFTiffs are a kind of property title that gives Cryptopunks owners the opportunity to exchange their original Punk for a digital artwork based on it. Each of these artworks comes with luxury pendants with the same characteristics as the Punk. They are expected to ship in early 2023.
Some interesting data on NFTs and sales
If we visit nftgo.io and look at the metrics of NFTiffs, we can see that the volume exploded on August 05, 2022 at 14:00 UTC to reach more than 630.000 dollars. However, since that date, the market cap is rather stable and remains around 12.5 million dollars (the starting price of NFTs). Of the 250 NFTs, we also see that there are about 180-185 holders.
The sale also had an impact on the average price of Cryptopunks, raising them up to 120 ETH.
Despite the challenging conditions in the crypto and NFT market, it’s hard to ignore the fact that major luxury groups are increasingly looking to enter the non-fungible token world. It’s worth noting, however, that behind Tiffany & Co is a broader strategy by luxury group LVMH, which recently entrusted a €100 million package to French venture capital fund Aglaé Ventures.
Coming from a teaching background, I’ve become passionate about the world of Blockchain. I’m eager to learn more and share the fruit of my research through my articles.
